Inside Ecto88, Ernie Cline’s Souped-Up Sci-Fi DeLorean

Ernie Cline is just begging for a speeding ticket in his souped-up DeLorean, a slick ’80s ride that’s loaded with sci-fi-inspired gadgets.

Like many a car enthusiast, the Ready Player One author has seen the boys in blue in his rear-view mirror once or twice. But unlike most hot-modders, he’s got a flux capacitor in his car, which is tricked-out with gear inspired by not just Back to the Future but also Ghostbusters, Knight Rider and The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai Across the 8th Dimension.

It’s the kind of car that, strangely enough, can get a driver out of trouble — if they get pulled over by the right cop.

“On my first book tour, I got pulled over for speeding in the DeLorean and the officer looked inside, saw the flux capacitor, saw the Proton Pack and turned into a 12-year-old boy, and said, ‘I’ll be right back,'” Cline said in a phone interview with Wired. “And he ran to his car and then he came back and within two minutes three other police cars pulled up. So I’m at the side of the highway and all these cops are like taking photos of the car. They didn’t give me a ticket — they just wanted to nerd out with the car.”

Nerding out with his car, which he calls he calls the Ecto88, is one of Cline’s favorite things to do, and he’s about to make it a possibility for one lucky reader of his geeky sci-fi novel Ready Player One. After taking Ecto88 on his previous book tour, Cline bought a second DeLorean for $22,000 on eBay, added a flux capacitor and used it for his paperback tour (check out the car in the gallery above and the video below).

When the paperback promo swing finishes, he’s giving away the dupe DeLorean to whoever can solve three videogame challenges — just like the great online hunt in the Matrix-esque “Oasis” that the protagonist of Ready Player One attempts to master.

Cline, who penned the film Fanboys, had been considering the contest since his novel’s hardcover release in August 2011, but didn’t have time to pull it together before Ready Player One’s initial run. But he did get his publisher Crown to include an Easter egg — a series of typographical errors on certain letters that spell out a web URL — in the book. With the paperback’s June 5 release, the first challenge went up at the Easter egg’s URL. It was, naturally, an Atari 2600 game created by Mike Mika and Kevin Wilson — both professional designers. A clue hidden in that game will lead to the next challenge or “gate,” which officially launches July 1 (some have found it already). The third and final contest will launch August 1, and after that it will be a dead heat until the first person completes the final challenge and wins the 1981 DeLorean.

The prize gull-wing car isn’t quite as tricked-out as Ecto88 — it just has a flux capacitor, not the other aftermarket sci-fi upgrades — but “whoever wins it can modify it further, however they want,” Cline said. The car still possesses all the ’80s pop culture clout of a DeLorean (the chosen ride of Ready Player One’s main character, Wade Watts).

“It’s like the most iconic car of the 1980s.”

“When I was thinking about what the prize should be for this contest, I couldn’t think of a better prize than a DeLorean, but I didn’t want to give away my DeLorean,” Cline said. “It’s like the most iconic car of the 1980s, and since my book is all wrapped up in 1980s pop culture, it’s the most perfect mobile emblem of my book and the most perfect grand prize.”

When Cline spoke with Wired, he hadn’t yet taken the second DeLorean out on the road. He was, however, still searching for that perfect speeding ticket.

As much of a completist as any nerd, Cline wants to get written up for driving 88 mph. He came close once, in Michigan, when he got pulled over doing 76 in a 65 mph zone. But the officer wouldn’t boost the speed on his citation (which had to be one of the geekier requests in the history of law enforcement).

“I begged [the officer],” Cline recalled. “I said, ‘Could you please raise the speed up to 88?’ I said, ‘I will pay the additional fine just so I can have this ticket and frame it for all time.'”